Celebrating the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln with your children is a history-enhancing family activity. By having your children help you prepare food that might have been served at the time of these presidents, they gain an insight into their time and life. In her book, Cooking Around the Calendar With Kids — Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun, Amy Houts suggests several foods that may have been typical dishes served to these presidents.
Since Washington lived near the Potamac River, he may have eaten crab cakes, a seafood that was plentiful in that region. Here is a typical seafood dish Washington might have eaten.
Crabbie Cakes
2 cups crab meat
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons oil
Lemon wedges
Children can stir together crabmeat, milk, parsley, bread crumbs, eggs, and Worcestershire sauce in a medium sized bowl.
Heat butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Using a large spoon, adults need to drop the crab mixture into skillet to form 4 to 6 cakes. Sauté about 5 minutes on each side, or until brown. Serve with lemon and tartar sauce.
Tartar sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon pickle relish or
1 sweet pickle, finely diced
Children can measure and mix mayonnaise and pickle together in a small bowl. Serve with crab cakes.
Yield: serves 4 to 6
America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, served during the Civil War between the North and South. In the White House cookbook, author Janet Halliday Ervin says of Lincoln’s eating habits: “Deep in books or thoughts, he did not seem to care when nor what nor whether he ate.” Nevertheless, here is a simple, tasty bread recipe that Lincoln may have enjoyed in his log cabin home.
Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Children can help measure and stir flour, baking powder, and salt in medium-sized bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture looks like coarse meal. Add buttermilk; stir with a fork until just mixed.
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured cloth or board. Knead six times. Children will enjoy patting and shaping this dough. Give each child a bit of dough to play with. Use a floured rolling pin to roll dough ˝ inch thick.
Cut with a 2-inch, floured biscuit cutter or drinking glass. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, one-inch apart. Bake 12 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Yield: 12 biscuits
To add to the Presidents’ theme with your children, use a bowl of pennies and quarters, whose profiles are pictured on the coins, as a centerpiece. You may want to direct children in a penny or quarter hunt. Make sure the proceeds are divided equally if they are allowed to keep the money and more than one child is involved!
For these and other food and fun activities, see the cookbook, Cooking Around the Calendar With Kids — Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun. This is a fun book you can read and use with your child all year long.
This cookbook/activity book is available directly from the publisher, Images Unlimited Publishing, P.O. Box 305, Maryville, MO 64468 or through their website http://imagesunlimitedpub.com. Cost $12.95 (softcover) and $24.95 (hardcover) each plus shipping. (Mo residents add 7.475% tax). Mailto: imagesun@asde.net
